(no subject)
This is part 6-3 and the last of part 6 (yay!) It's got some stuff about Wolverine's past, most of which I made up.
title: do I really need to keep saying this?
genre: X-men fanfic movieverse/my imagination-verse.
note: Logan POV. Characters OOC. Language, violence... This isn't mine. Recognizable characters belong to Marvel... Feedback woul dbe more than apreciated (hint hint!)
My body ached. Every single part of it screamed. If my attacker had let up on his attacks, it might have been fractionally better. But he didn’t. Sabertooth came at me again. His ugly face was made even uglier by the maniacal grin that adorned it. I forced my mind away from the pain. Searching for a subject to distract myself with, I seized on Sabertooth himself.
He and I have a complex relationship. He’s as much a product of Weapon X as I am, though he tries to deny it. He was brought in about three months after me. It was during that hellhole of a time when I’d just come out of brainwash surgery. They’d left me with the English language, but not much more. I was learning how to read again when he arrived.
I am told that I fought the guards when I was taken. I am told that I almost got away, except that they’d drugged me with some creepy thing that slowed me down. He didn’t. He walked in there of his own accord. Sure, he was surrounded by guards, but they probably just waved money under his nose. That would have gotten him to go.
They didn’t give him claws right away. I guess that they thought he was dangerous enough without them. He looks like he should be. To give him credit that he doesn’t deserve, he is. In unarmed combat, he might possibly beat me. Still, the world doesn’t work like that. It works like this: the guy with better weapons wins. Sure, there are the odd cases where some old man turns out to be a Ninja Master and murders a bunch of trained officials with machine guns. Still, those cases are rare and far between. Most of the time, the world is governed by those with money and weapons.
By the third month, he was begging them for claws. Finally, they agreed. The only glitch was the promise to go through with brainwash surgery. He agreed without looking back. Before they took him to surgery, though, they had him write down everything he could remember. I mean everything. When he was done, they asked him millions of questions and wrote down more stuff. The final product is something like 300 pages long. Then, they wheeled him off to surgery.
He emerged freshly brainwashed and sporting four bright and shiny Adamantium claws. I don’t know how he convinced them to give him four. Or how he got them to make his non-retractable. Bloody idiotic, if you ask me, but nobody ever did. There were quite a few injuries, both accidental and on purpose, until he got used to the things.
We were assigned to the same group right from the start. Us and a girl who called herself Mystique.
She was a shape shifter and habitually took the form of a blond woman in her early twenties called Eliza. It was quite a shock to find her again as Magneto’s main henchman. But that’s off topic.
Sabertooth and I had instant rivalry. We hated each other from the moment we met, even before his surgery. Part of that was just that we’re totally different. No. I’m wrong. We’re totally the same. Both of us have feral instincts and nasty tempers. We have both been fitted with Adamantium skeletons and were born with mutant healing factors. The only difference between us is that I do my best to keep my animal nature and temper in check, while he allows them free reign.
Sabertooth was discharged from Weapon X after a nasty accident involving a bad temper tantrum on his part and a lot of gun powder. We were on a mission and he wanted to be paired with Mystique. I think that he liked her a bit, but it would be the death of him to admit it. I was quite willing to allow Mystique to go off with Sabertooth, I never liked her much either, but she seemed to have attached herself to me. He got mad and tried to kill me. I tripped as I dodged his attack and ended up activating the whole building. He left to save his own skin, but I stayed behind. Mystique had caught a bit of his blow and had fainted. I saw her in her natural form for the first time and remember thinking that it’s a damn good thing she’s a shape shifter.
When the two of us got back to the base, Sabertooth had already been disciplined. It involved being drafted as a crash test dummy for NASA and never being able to return to Weapon X. It hurt him more than it would have hurt me. He actually liked all those damn missions that they sent us on. I hadn’t seen him since he left, vowing to return and kill us all. Unfortunately, I’d beat him to it. He could go to all the Weapon X bases he wanted, there wasn’t anything left. Myself and others had collaborated to make sure that John Wraith and all the others caught the number nine bus to hell. Express.
“Are you even paying attention to me, Wolverine?” Sabertooth demanded.
“No. Why?”
“Because I’m talking to you. I asked if you know why I’m here.”
“No. I don’t particularly want to, either. Knowing you, though, I’m going to hear about it anyway.”
“You sure are. I came here asking to get directions to your little school. Imagine that! Wolverine at school!? It makes me hysterical just to think about it.” Despite this, he didn’t look about to laugh. He looked deadly serious. I had a bad feeling about my prospects of living through the next few minutes. “I want to see you dead.” He continued. “I’ve wanted to see you dead for a very long time. I decided to do it right now.” He drew his arm back. My prospects got even worse. “I though, ‘well, if I slash him, then he’ll just heal. So, I’ll just stick him through the brain.’ Don’t you think that it’ll work?” I didn’t grace this with an answer. I just braced myself for the pain that was coming. I wished that it would just be over fast. At least when you’re dead you don’t feel pain. At least, I don’t think you do. I’ve never been dead so I can’t tell. The claw came down. At least I didn’t feel too much pain. The screams of my nerves all reached my brain at the same time. The actual physical sensation known as pain was dulled by an overloaded system. The last thing I saw before my brain shut down completely was Sabertooth’s satisfied face.
It was dark when I woke up. I mean dark. Like, absolutely no light. I didn’t feel any pain. I didn’t feel anything at all. I wondered if I was dead. I moved various limbs experimentally. They all worked. A bit stiff, but no lasting damage. I hoped. All at once, a pinpoint of light appeared. I strained to use it to see where I was, but there wasn’t enough of it. I can see fairly well in the dark, but you gotta have some light.
The light got closer. As it increased in size, I saw a shape walking behind it. Finally, the light stopped right in front of where I was lying. From the stiffness of my muscles, I assumed that I’d been lying there for some time. The figure turned out to be a woman. She was dressed in red, with a strange mask-like thing framing her face.
She stopped just beneath the light. I saw that it was a small ball that was floating in mid air. “Are you awake?” the woman asked.
“What does it look like?” I managed to croak. My throat was bone-dry. I wondered how long I’d been out.
“You shouldn’t be awake.” She sounded both confused and annoyed.
“If you’re so convinced that I shouldn’t be, then why did you bother coming here in the first place?”
“I was told to. I have to do what I’m told.”
“Good little girl, aren’t you?”
“Don’t talk about things you don’t know anything about,” she advised me. “If I had my way, I’d be a thousand miles away from this place. Do you think I like torturing people?”
“If you don’t like torturing people, then how about getting me some water. Or at least telling me where it can be found. Not being able to die of thirst is not very pleasant.”
She hesitated. “I’m not technically allowed to do this,” she cautioned. “Don’t tell anyone.”
“I won’t. Just do whatever you’re going to do and do it fast.” She made a strange gesture with her hands. A cup of water appeared by my side. I took it and drained it. The liquid ran down my throat. As an atheist, I will not get to heaven. Even so, that drink was as close to heaven as it’s possible to get and still be alive. “How the hell did you do that? Who are you, anyway?”
She sighed. “I’m known as the Scarlet Witch,” she answered. “I have something called ‘hex power.’ Basically, I can do whatever I want, within limitation.”
“Sounds tricky,” I commented. “I suppose the hand motions are all part of it.”
She nodded. At that moment, a man came in. There was enough light to tell me that I was in a room which had one bed, which I was occupying. The man looked to be about at old as the Scarlet Witch. He was dressed in green, to her red, with a silver lightning bolt going up his chest.
“He’s awake, Wanda?” he asked.
“What does it look like, Pietro?” the Scarlet Witch demanded. I wondered if she’d just thought of it or if she was deliberately copying me. I found myself hoping for the first.
“How long has it been?” the man, Pietro, asked. I thanked him silently. It was the question that I was dying to ask.
“Four days,” the Scarlet Witch answered. “You were lucky, brother. Being here has not been fun. Lord Magneto has been in a bad temper and Sabertooth has not been happy.”
“I can only imagine,” Pietro said dryly. He turned to me. “Do you know who I am?”
“No.”
“My name is Quicksilver. The Scarlet Witch is my twin sister.”
“How nice. Is this a family reunion? If so, I would ask only that you leave me out of it. I have no interest in things like that.”
Quicksilver scowled. “No one asked your opinion,” he informed me coldly. “Frankly, I don’t particularly want it.”
“That’s just too bad. ‘Cause I’m gonna give it anyway. I’m sick of being treated like I don’t exist. You do it, Sabertooth does it…it gets mighty annoying, let me tell you.”
“You know Sabertooth?” The Scarlet Witch sounded intrigued.
“Well…he did try to split my head open. We must know each other a bit, mustn’t we?”
Quicksilver scowled again. “My sister asked you a civil question. I thank you to give her a civil answer.”
“No sibling rivalry between you two,” I observed dryly. “You want an answer? Here it is. Yes. I do know Sabertooth. I know him and am much looking forward to kill him. Tell him that Wolverine says hi and that he’d better try harder next time.”
“I’m no one’s messenger boy,” Quicksilver informed me.
“Too bad. If you happen to find any, send them in here.”
Quicksilver sighed in exasperation. “Wanda. Have you done enough here? If so, then I’d like to leave.”
“No one’s stopping you, Pietro,” the Scarlet Witch said practically. “You’re only here because I am. I’m a grown woman now, brother. I don’t need you looking over my shoulder all the time. Besides, I bet Lord Magneto wants to hear about your mission.”
Quicksilver sighed. “I will speak to you later about this,” he told his sister. He left.
“You gonna stay here and watch me like I’m some sort of freak animal?” I asked pleasantly. “’Cause if you are, the I’m not gonna pay any more attention to ya.”
“I want to talk with you,” she said.
That caught me by surprise. “Why the hell would you want to do that?”
“I was told that you didn’t resist Sabertooth’s attacks. At all. Why?”
“You really wanna know?”
She nodded.
“I told Magneto I would. We made a bargain. If he set my friend free, he could have me.”
“But why did you do that?”
“’Cause I told him I would. I don’t break my word.”
“You’re the only person I’ve ever met who would willingly sacrifice himself to save someone else.” She sounded as though she couldn’t quite believe what she was saying.
“You can’t have met very many people, then.”
She sighed. “I should probably go. Lord Magneto sends word that you’re to be fully recovered before he sees you.”
“Before he kills me, more like it,” I muttered darkly.
“I’ll leave you the light,” she added as she made her way to the door.
It was a few days until Magneto chose to send for me. During that time, I confirmed what I’d already half suspected. All power of feeling was gone. I felt pressure when something touched me, but that was it. Nothing else. No pain, no cold, no heat…nothing. It scared me a bit. That Sabertooth had managed to inflict any lasting damage told me something about just how close I’d come. I didn’t like that. Still, there were a few advantages to my new numbed state. I felt no pain. At all. I tried this by doing various artful slashes across my exposed chest. Nothing. Absolutely nothing at all. I was going to have to be very careful. Not being able to feel pain, though damn useful at times, can be something of an inconvenience.
The Scarlet Witch came in several times a day. She pretended to be there on orders but I think that she just wanted someone to talk to. She told me a bit about herself: about how Magneto had saved her from a mob that wanted to burn her for witchcraft; about how Quicksilver’s and her parents had committed suicide when they were born different; about how she was bound to Magneto until he felt her debt repaid. I didn’t return the favor, but she didn’t expect me to. It was kind of understood between us that I wouldn’t betray her to Quicksilver. I didn’t like Quicksilver much anyway. His superior manner just got under my skin and stuck there.
When Magneto sent for me, I was beginning to think that it would never happen. He was, apparently, a busy man. I wasn’t very high on his agenda, all things considered. The Scarlet Witch escorted me to the audience chamber, as I dubbed the enormous room. He was sitting in a chair at on end, with Psylock to one side. Her face was emotionless, she didn’t move except to breath. She was like a living statue. It was seriously creepy.
“Wolverine,” he said. “I trust Sabertooth’s attack has left no lasting damage?”
“Why would you care?” I snapped back. “If he has, it’ll give you an easier job.”
“I believe I mentioned before that I like a challenge. We set a date for a fight. I think that this fits the conditions.”
“You gonna do it before witnesses?” I asked, nodding to the Scarlet Witch and Psylock.
“Witch, you may leave us,” he ordered. “Psylock may stay.” The Scarlet Witch bowed and exited. I was left all alone with a maniac and a living statue. At least it wouldn’t hurt when he killed me.
“When are you gonna do it, pretty boy?” I asked. I was tired of the whole hit-and-run business. I wanted him to take the bait and kill me fast.
“Oh, I’m not going to,” he said calmly. “I find myself slightly tired today. I believe that my soldier can accomplish the job for me.” He spoke to Psylock. “Finish him.” She came at me. A glowing knife appeared in one hand.
The other held nothing. I wasn’t sure which hand I distrusted the most. That was no ordinary knife, but the bare hand held the menace of something even worse.
She slashed with the knife. She was fast. I was faster. Not by much, but definitely faster. I dodged and slashed with my claws. The connected with empty air. She’d moved. I swore. Magneto laughed. “My soldier is a psychic, Wolverine,” he told me. “She can read your mind.” Something about that disconcerted me. I pushed the thoughts away, filing them in the ever growing, ‘to be dealt with at a more convenient time’ folder of my memory.
Psylock came at me again. I dodged. I came at her. She dodged. It went on for a little while. I was faster than her and she could read my mind. Both of us sustained small injuries, but nothing deadly or even close.
Finally, I decided to try a gamble. Concentrating with all my might on moving to the left, I stepped forwards instead. My trick worked. As she slashed inches to the left of my exposed arm, I brought my claws up across her chest. A gash opened. She stepped back in surprise. Even though the blood flowed, she didn’t make a sound.
I knew that I wouldn’t be able to trick her a second time. I flung all caution out of the window. I let my animal nature loose as it hadn’t been let loose in years. I believe that the last time was in a fight to the death with Sabertooth. Unfortunately, both of us managed to survive. I moved almost as fast as Quicksilver. My claws never stopped moving. Each time they struck, I carved a little piece about her. I ignored the many cuts that I was accumulating. My healing power would take care of them. Since I couldn’t feel them, they didn’t matter.
Finally, I got it. The perfect opening. I struck. She crumpled. The blood flowed. Oddly, I registered no loss of life. All at once, I realized why not. Psylock hadn’t been alive. Magneto had hijacked her body to use as a robot. That was why she was different. She wasn’t herself. She wasn’t anybody. All this came at me in a flash. I filed it away in the extensive ‘to be examined later’ file in my brain. My main problem was Magneto. He stood up. He did look tired, I realized. Old too. I wondered just how old Magneto actually was. Well past middle aged, at least.
“I underestimated you,” Magneto commented. “I trusted in my soldier to do a job I should have done myself. Now, I will fix that error.” He lifted an arm. I felt the Adamantium respond eagerly to his call. I took a step forwards. I tried to resist, but it was useless. I took another step.
Closer.
Closer. I wondered how death would feel.
Closer.
Closer. I wondered if the Adamantium could come off entirely.
Closer.
Closer. I was just inches away from him chest. All at once, the pull on my bones stopped. Completely. Magneto hadn’t moved, nothing had changed. But I was free. I set my claw on his chest and was about to plunge it in when my body froze. All movement was impossible.
A woman stepped over. The Scarlet Witch. She made a hand gesture and I was dragged back. Looking down, I saw that ropes were binding me. “Will you free me now, milord?” The Scarlet Witch asked.
“Why should I do that?” Magneto asked.
“Maybe because she just saved your life,” I suggested.
The Scarlet Witch looked slightly surprised at me intervention, but continued. “You saved my life. Because of that, I placed myself in your service until my debt was repaid. I have just repaid it. By saving your life, our accounts are equal. You are honor bound to release me.”
Magneto sighed. “You are released. Go.”
“And my brother?”
“There was never anything keeping him. He may leave at any time.”
The Scarlet Witch’s face broke into a grin of pure delight. She brought her hands down to her sides. The ropes vanished. Unfortunately, Magneto had recovered his powers. I found myself being manipulated yet again. I was getting very tired of it. I forced myself to stand still, ignoring the ever increasing tug from my bones. I wondered idly if he could actually manage to tear the Adamantium off my skeleton completely. I found that I didn’t care. The Scarlet Witch had left as soon as she freed me. It was just me and Magneto.
His face was showing strain. I imagine that mine showed just as much. We were at an impasse. “Why?” he hissed. “Why do you do this? You are Wolverine, being designed to kill. Mercy and self-sacrifice are not in your programming.”
“You seem to think you know a lot about me,” I spat back. “What I was programmed to do and what I actually do are two very different things. Just because I was told never to sacrifice myself doesn’t mean that I won’t. Ask your pal Sabertooth if you want confirmation. In many ways, he’s a much better example of Weapon X than I am. What they told him to do, he did. He was a good puppy. I wasn’t.”
His breath was coming in gasps. I realized that he was killing himself in his effort to keep me contained. “Just give up,” I advised. “If you keep on like this, you’ll commit suicide. Wouldn’t it just be nicer if I killed you?”
“What do you think?” he gasped. All at once, his face turned white. The tugging ceased. I was free. I crossed the room in several steps. “Just kill me now,” he said.
“Why? Why shouldn’t I do it on my own time?”
“My power is gone. Permanently. It burned itself out. I’m worthless. Just kill me.”
I smiled. “A greater man might balk at killing a defenseless man,” I observed. “As is quite obvious, I’m not one of them.” I killed him. It was pathetically easy.
Sabertooth was waiting for me just outside the building. “I was hoping you’d come,” he said conversationally.
“Glad to oblige you,” I answered. “Shall we get this over with?”
“Whenever you’re ready,” he drawled.
“Darling, I’ve been ready for the last five years,” I told him. “Ever since you ran off during that last fight.”
He came at me, Adamantium death coming out of his hands.
Sparks flew as his claws met mine. The air rang with the ‘clang’ of metal on metal. We fought for a long time, each one of us doing his best to turn the other into living pulp. Unfortunately, both of us possess healing factors. As fast as we could try to kill each other, we healed. It was rather frustrating.
“What’s it gonna take to kill you?” I demanded between gasps for oxygen.
“I could ask you the same question,” he panted back. We continued to struggle. “You gonna tell me how you survived my last attempt?”
“Luck, I suppose. By the way, did you know that you effectively stopped me from feeling any of this crap that you’re thrusting into my body?”
He snarled. Coming at me again, he whispered, “Isn’t that too bad?”
“Yeah,” I snapped back. He aimed for my stomach. “Allow me to return the favor.” I plunged my claw through his skull. I head bone crunching as my claw reappeared on the other side. He gasped and collapsed. He was still breathing. I pulled my claw out and thrust again. His breath stopped. His healing might be faster acting than mine, but mine is obviously stronger. We had to find it out the hard way.
I wiped my claw on his shirt. Turning to go, I saw a vehicle that I recognized. Cyclops’s bike. Iceman was looking slightly horrified at the controls.
“Mind telling me what the shit you’re doing here?” I called as I stepped over Sabertooth’s corpse.
“Coming to find you,” he answered. “You are seriously scary sometimes, by the way.”
“So I’ve been told. Are you here with permission?”
“No. Why?”
“Because Storm is going to be seriously furious at me when we get back. Why did you come?”
“When Nightcrawler rescued those two girls, he said that you were still intent on heading North. I figured that an extra pair of hands couldn’t hurt. So I borrowed the bike and came to find you.”
“Didn’t figure you for a forester,” I said.
“I’m not,” he assured me. “I programmed you into the tracking system. Without it, I’d’ve been totally lost. I don’t see how you and Ashley do it.”
“Just goes to show that you’re a child of the city. What’s this about a tracking device?”
“Child of the Suburbs, thank you very much. Storm lent it to me. It finds mutants. You coming or not?”
“Unless you want to program Storm into that fine device of yours, then I’d probably better take the lead.”
“I was just about to offer.”
title: do I really need to keep saying this?
genre: X-men fanfic movieverse/my imagination-verse.
note: Logan POV. Characters OOC. Language, violence... This isn't mine. Recognizable characters belong to Marvel... Feedback woul dbe more than apreciated (hint hint!)
My body ached. Every single part of it screamed. If my attacker had let up on his attacks, it might have been fractionally better. But he didn’t. Sabertooth came at me again. His ugly face was made even uglier by the maniacal grin that adorned it. I forced my mind away from the pain. Searching for a subject to distract myself with, I seized on Sabertooth himself.
He and I have a complex relationship. He’s as much a product of Weapon X as I am, though he tries to deny it. He was brought in about three months after me. It was during that hellhole of a time when I’d just come out of brainwash surgery. They’d left me with the English language, but not much more. I was learning how to read again when he arrived.
I am told that I fought the guards when I was taken. I am told that I almost got away, except that they’d drugged me with some creepy thing that slowed me down. He didn’t. He walked in there of his own accord. Sure, he was surrounded by guards, but they probably just waved money under his nose. That would have gotten him to go.
They didn’t give him claws right away. I guess that they thought he was dangerous enough without them. He looks like he should be. To give him credit that he doesn’t deserve, he is. In unarmed combat, he might possibly beat me. Still, the world doesn’t work like that. It works like this: the guy with better weapons wins. Sure, there are the odd cases where some old man turns out to be a Ninja Master and murders a bunch of trained officials with machine guns. Still, those cases are rare and far between. Most of the time, the world is governed by those with money and weapons.
By the third month, he was begging them for claws. Finally, they agreed. The only glitch was the promise to go through with brainwash surgery. He agreed without looking back. Before they took him to surgery, though, they had him write down everything he could remember. I mean everything. When he was done, they asked him millions of questions and wrote down more stuff. The final product is something like 300 pages long. Then, they wheeled him off to surgery.
He emerged freshly brainwashed and sporting four bright and shiny Adamantium claws. I don’t know how he convinced them to give him four. Or how he got them to make his non-retractable. Bloody idiotic, if you ask me, but nobody ever did. There were quite a few injuries, both accidental and on purpose, until he got used to the things.
We were assigned to the same group right from the start. Us and a girl who called herself Mystique.
She was a shape shifter and habitually took the form of a blond woman in her early twenties called Eliza. It was quite a shock to find her again as Magneto’s main henchman. But that’s off topic.
Sabertooth and I had instant rivalry. We hated each other from the moment we met, even before his surgery. Part of that was just that we’re totally different. No. I’m wrong. We’re totally the same. Both of us have feral instincts and nasty tempers. We have both been fitted with Adamantium skeletons and were born with mutant healing factors. The only difference between us is that I do my best to keep my animal nature and temper in check, while he allows them free reign.
Sabertooth was discharged from Weapon X after a nasty accident involving a bad temper tantrum on his part and a lot of gun powder. We were on a mission and he wanted to be paired with Mystique. I think that he liked her a bit, but it would be the death of him to admit it. I was quite willing to allow Mystique to go off with Sabertooth, I never liked her much either, but she seemed to have attached herself to me. He got mad and tried to kill me. I tripped as I dodged his attack and ended up activating the whole building. He left to save his own skin, but I stayed behind. Mystique had caught a bit of his blow and had fainted. I saw her in her natural form for the first time and remember thinking that it’s a damn good thing she’s a shape shifter.
When the two of us got back to the base, Sabertooth had already been disciplined. It involved being drafted as a crash test dummy for NASA and never being able to return to Weapon X. It hurt him more than it would have hurt me. He actually liked all those damn missions that they sent us on. I hadn’t seen him since he left, vowing to return and kill us all. Unfortunately, I’d beat him to it. He could go to all the Weapon X bases he wanted, there wasn’t anything left. Myself and others had collaborated to make sure that John Wraith and all the others caught the number nine bus to hell. Express.
“Are you even paying attention to me, Wolverine?” Sabertooth demanded.
“No. Why?”
“Because I’m talking to you. I asked if you know why I’m here.”
“No. I don’t particularly want to, either. Knowing you, though, I’m going to hear about it anyway.”
“You sure are. I came here asking to get directions to your little school. Imagine that! Wolverine at school!? It makes me hysterical just to think about it.” Despite this, he didn’t look about to laugh. He looked deadly serious. I had a bad feeling about my prospects of living through the next few minutes. “I want to see you dead.” He continued. “I’ve wanted to see you dead for a very long time. I decided to do it right now.” He drew his arm back. My prospects got even worse. “I though, ‘well, if I slash him, then he’ll just heal. So, I’ll just stick him through the brain.’ Don’t you think that it’ll work?” I didn’t grace this with an answer. I just braced myself for the pain that was coming. I wished that it would just be over fast. At least when you’re dead you don’t feel pain. At least, I don’t think you do. I’ve never been dead so I can’t tell. The claw came down. At least I didn’t feel too much pain. The screams of my nerves all reached my brain at the same time. The actual physical sensation known as pain was dulled by an overloaded system. The last thing I saw before my brain shut down completely was Sabertooth’s satisfied face.
It was dark when I woke up. I mean dark. Like, absolutely no light. I didn’t feel any pain. I didn’t feel anything at all. I wondered if I was dead. I moved various limbs experimentally. They all worked. A bit stiff, but no lasting damage. I hoped. All at once, a pinpoint of light appeared. I strained to use it to see where I was, but there wasn’t enough of it. I can see fairly well in the dark, but you gotta have some light.
The light got closer. As it increased in size, I saw a shape walking behind it. Finally, the light stopped right in front of where I was lying. From the stiffness of my muscles, I assumed that I’d been lying there for some time. The figure turned out to be a woman. She was dressed in red, with a strange mask-like thing framing her face.
She stopped just beneath the light. I saw that it was a small ball that was floating in mid air. “Are you awake?” the woman asked.
“What does it look like?” I managed to croak. My throat was bone-dry. I wondered how long I’d been out.
“You shouldn’t be awake.” She sounded both confused and annoyed.
“If you’re so convinced that I shouldn’t be, then why did you bother coming here in the first place?”
“I was told to. I have to do what I’m told.”
“Good little girl, aren’t you?”
“Don’t talk about things you don’t know anything about,” she advised me. “If I had my way, I’d be a thousand miles away from this place. Do you think I like torturing people?”
“If you don’t like torturing people, then how about getting me some water. Or at least telling me where it can be found. Not being able to die of thirst is not very pleasant.”
She hesitated. “I’m not technically allowed to do this,” she cautioned. “Don’t tell anyone.”
“I won’t. Just do whatever you’re going to do and do it fast.” She made a strange gesture with her hands. A cup of water appeared by my side. I took it and drained it. The liquid ran down my throat. As an atheist, I will not get to heaven. Even so, that drink was as close to heaven as it’s possible to get and still be alive. “How the hell did you do that? Who are you, anyway?”
She sighed. “I’m known as the Scarlet Witch,” she answered. “I have something called ‘hex power.’ Basically, I can do whatever I want, within limitation.”
“Sounds tricky,” I commented. “I suppose the hand motions are all part of it.”
She nodded. At that moment, a man came in. There was enough light to tell me that I was in a room which had one bed, which I was occupying. The man looked to be about at old as the Scarlet Witch. He was dressed in green, to her red, with a silver lightning bolt going up his chest.
“He’s awake, Wanda?” he asked.
“What does it look like, Pietro?” the Scarlet Witch demanded. I wondered if she’d just thought of it or if she was deliberately copying me. I found myself hoping for the first.
“How long has it been?” the man, Pietro, asked. I thanked him silently. It was the question that I was dying to ask.
“Four days,” the Scarlet Witch answered. “You were lucky, brother. Being here has not been fun. Lord Magneto has been in a bad temper and Sabertooth has not been happy.”
“I can only imagine,” Pietro said dryly. He turned to me. “Do you know who I am?”
“No.”
“My name is Quicksilver. The Scarlet Witch is my twin sister.”
“How nice. Is this a family reunion? If so, I would ask only that you leave me out of it. I have no interest in things like that.”
Quicksilver scowled. “No one asked your opinion,” he informed me coldly. “Frankly, I don’t particularly want it.”
“That’s just too bad. ‘Cause I’m gonna give it anyway. I’m sick of being treated like I don’t exist. You do it, Sabertooth does it…it gets mighty annoying, let me tell you.”
“You know Sabertooth?” The Scarlet Witch sounded intrigued.
“Well…he did try to split my head open. We must know each other a bit, mustn’t we?”
Quicksilver scowled again. “My sister asked you a civil question. I thank you to give her a civil answer.”
“No sibling rivalry between you two,” I observed dryly. “You want an answer? Here it is. Yes. I do know Sabertooth. I know him and am much looking forward to kill him. Tell him that Wolverine says hi and that he’d better try harder next time.”
“I’m no one’s messenger boy,” Quicksilver informed me.
“Too bad. If you happen to find any, send them in here.”
Quicksilver sighed in exasperation. “Wanda. Have you done enough here? If so, then I’d like to leave.”
“No one’s stopping you, Pietro,” the Scarlet Witch said practically. “You’re only here because I am. I’m a grown woman now, brother. I don’t need you looking over my shoulder all the time. Besides, I bet Lord Magneto wants to hear about your mission.”
Quicksilver sighed. “I will speak to you later about this,” he told his sister. He left.
“You gonna stay here and watch me like I’m some sort of freak animal?” I asked pleasantly. “’Cause if you are, the I’m not gonna pay any more attention to ya.”
“I want to talk with you,” she said.
That caught me by surprise. “Why the hell would you want to do that?”
“I was told that you didn’t resist Sabertooth’s attacks. At all. Why?”
“You really wanna know?”
She nodded.
“I told Magneto I would. We made a bargain. If he set my friend free, he could have me.”
“But why did you do that?”
“’Cause I told him I would. I don’t break my word.”
“You’re the only person I’ve ever met who would willingly sacrifice himself to save someone else.” She sounded as though she couldn’t quite believe what she was saying.
“You can’t have met very many people, then.”
She sighed. “I should probably go. Lord Magneto sends word that you’re to be fully recovered before he sees you.”
“Before he kills me, more like it,” I muttered darkly.
“I’ll leave you the light,” she added as she made her way to the door.
It was a few days until Magneto chose to send for me. During that time, I confirmed what I’d already half suspected. All power of feeling was gone. I felt pressure when something touched me, but that was it. Nothing else. No pain, no cold, no heat…nothing. It scared me a bit. That Sabertooth had managed to inflict any lasting damage told me something about just how close I’d come. I didn’t like that. Still, there were a few advantages to my new numbed state. I felt no pain. At all. I tried this by doing various artful slashes across my exposed chest. Nothing. Absolutely nothing at all. I was going to have to be very careful. Not being able to feel pain, though damn useful at times, can be something of an inconvenience.
The Scarlet Witch came in several times a day. She pretended to be there on orders but I think that she just wanted someone to talk to. She told me a bit about herself: about how Magneto had saved her from a mob that wanted to burn her for witchcraft; about how Quicksilver’s and her parents had committed suicide when they were born different; about how she was bound to Magneto until he felt her debt repaid. I didn’t return the favor, but she didn’t expect me to. It was kind of understood between us that I wouldn’t betray her to Quicksilver. I didn’t like Quicksilver much anyway. His superior manner just got under my skin and stuck there.
When Magneto sent for me, I was beginning to think that it would never happen. He was, apparently, a busy man. I wasn’t very high on his agenda, all things considered. The Scarlet Witch escorted me to the audience chamber, as I dubbed the enormous room. He was sitting in a chair at on end, with Psylock to one side. Her face was emotionless, she didn’t move except to breath. She was like a living statue. It was seriously creepy.
“Wolverine,” he said. “I trust Sabertooth’s attack has left no lasting damage?”
“Why would you care?” I snapped back. “If he has, it’ll give you an easier job.”
“I believe I mentioned before that I like a challenge. We set a date for a fight. I think that this fits the conditions.”
“You gonna do it before witnesses?” I asked, nodding to the Scarlet Witch and Psylock.
“Witch, you may leave us,” he ordered. “Psylock may stay.” The Scarlet Witch bowed and exited. I was left all alone with a maniac and a living statue. At least it wouldn’t hurt when he killed me.
“When are you gonna do it, pretty boy?” I asked. I was tired of the whole hit-and-run business. I wanted him to take the bait and kill me fast.
“Oh, I’m not going to,” he said calmly. “I find myself slightly tired today. I believe that my soldier can accomplish the job for me.” He spoke to Psylock. “Finish him.” She came at me. A glowing knife appeared in one hand.
The other held nothing. I wasn’t sure which hand I distrusted the most. That was no ordinary knife, but the bare hand held the menace of something even worse.
She slashed with the knife. She was fast. I was faster. Not by much, but definitely faster. I dodged and slashed with my claws. The connected with empty air. She’d moved. I swore. Magneto laughed. “My soldier is a psychic, Wolverine,” he told me. “She can read your mind.” Something about that disconcerted me. I pushed the thoughts away, filing them in the ever growing, ‘to be dealt with at a more convenient time’ folder of my memory.
Psylock came at me again. I dodged. I came at her. She dodged. It went on for a little while. I was faster than her and she could read my mind. Both of us sustained small injuries, but nothing deadly or even close.
Finally, I decided to try a gamble. Concentrating with all my might on moving to the left, I stepped forwards instead. My trick worked. As she slashed inches to the left of my exposed arm, I brought my claws up across her chest. A gash opened. She stepped back in surprise. Even though the blood flowed, she didn’t make a sound.
I knew that I wouldn’t be able to trick her a second time. I flung all caution out of the window. I let my animal nature loose as it hadn’t been let loose in years. I believe that the last time was in a fight to the death with Sabertooth. Unfortunately, both of us managed to survive. I moved almost as fast as Quicksilver. My claws never stopped moving. Each time they struck, I carved a little piece about her. I ignored the many cuts that I was accumulating. My healing power would take care of them. Since I couldn’t feel them, they didn’t matter.
Finally, I got it. The perfect opening. I struck. She crumpled. The blood flowed. Oddly, I registered no loss of life. All at once, I realized why not. Psylock hadn’t been alive. Magneto had hijacked her body to use as a robot. That was why she was different. She wasn’t herself. She wasn’t anybody. All this came at me in a flash. I filed it away in the extensive ‘to be examined later’ file in my brain. My main problem was Magneto. He stood up. He did look tired, I realized. Old too. I wondered just how old Magneto actually was. Well past middle aged, at least.
“I underestimated you,” Magneto commented. “I trusted in my soldier to do a job I should have done myself. Now, I will fix that error.” He lifted an arm. I felt the Adamantium respond eagerly to his call. I took a step forwards. I tried to resist, but it was useless. I took another step.
Closer.
Closer. I wondered how death would feel.
Closer.
Closer. I wondered if the Adamantium could come off entirely.
Closer.
Closer. I was just inches away from him chest. All at once, the pull on my bones stopped. Completely. Magneto hadn’t moved, nothing had changed. But I was free. I set my claw on his chest and was about to plunge it in when my body froze. All movement was impossible.
A woman stepped over. The Scarlet Witch. She made a hand gesture and I was dragged back. Looking down, I saw that ropes were binding me. “Will you free me now, milord?” The Scarlet Witch asked.
“Why should I do that?” Magneto asked.
“Maybe because she just saved your life,” I suggested.
The Scarlet Witch looked slightly surprised at me intervention, but continued. “You saved my life. Because of that, I placed myself in your service until my debt was repaid. I have just repaid it. By saving your life, our accounts are equal. You are honor bound to release me.”
Magneto sighed. “You are released. Go.”
“And my brother?”
“There was never anything keeping him. He may leave at any time.”
The Scarlet Witch’s face broke into a grin of pure delight. She brought her hands down to her sides. The ropes vanished. Unfortunately, Magneto had recovered his powers. I found myself being manipulated yet again. I was getting very tired of it. I forced myself to stand still, ignoring the ever increasing tug from my bones. I wondered idly if he could actually manage to tear the Adamantium off my skeleton completely. I found that I didn’t care. The Scarlet Witch had left as soon as she freed me. It was just me and Magneto.
His face was showing strain. I imagine that mine showed just as much. We were at an impasse. “Why?” he hissed. “Why do you do this? You are Wolverine, being designed to kill. Mercy and self-sacrifice are not in your programming.”
“You seem to think you know a lot about me,” I spat back. “What I was programmed to do and what I actually do are two very different things. Just because I was told never to sacrifice myself doesn’t mean that I won’t. Ask your pal Sabertooth if you want confirmation. In many ways, he’s a much better example of Weapon X than I am. What they told him to do, he did. He was a good puppy. I wasn’t.”
His breath was coming in gasps. I realized that he was killing himself in his effort to keep me contained. “Just give up,” I advised. “If you keep on like this, you’ll commit suicide. Wouldn’t it just be nicer if I killed you?”
“What do you think?” he gasped. All at once, his face turned white. The tugging ceased. I was free. I crossed the room in several steps. “Just kill me now,” he said.
“Why? Why shouldn’t I do it on my own time?”
“My power is gone. Permanently. It burned itself out. I’m worthless. Just kill me.”
I smiled. “A greater man might balk at killing a defenseless man,” I observed. “As is quite obvious, I’m not one of them.” I killed him. It was pathetically easy.
Sabertooth was waiting for me just outside the building. “I was hoping you’d come,” he said conversationally.
“Glad to oblige you,” I answered. “Shall we get this over with?”
“Whenever you’re ready,” he drawled.
“Darling, I’ve been ready for the last five years,” I told him. “Ever since you ran off during that last fight.”
He came at me, Adamantium death coming out of his hands.
Sparks flew as his claws met mine. The air rang with the ‘clang’ of metal on metal. We fought for a long time, each one of us doing his best to turn the other into living pulp. Unfortunately, both of us possess healing factors. As fast as we could try to kill each other, we healed. It was rather frustrating.
“What’s it gonna take to kill you?” I demanded between gasps for oxygen.
“I could ask you the same question,” he panted back. We continued to struggle. “You gonna tell me how you survived my last attempt?”
“Luck, I suppose. By the way, did you know that you effectively stopped me from feeling any of this crap that you’re thrusting into my body?”
He snarled. Coming at me again, he whispered, “Isn’t that too bad?”
“Yeah,” I snapped back. He aimed for my stomach. “Allow me to return the favor.” I plunged my claw through his skull. I head bone crunching as my claw reappeared on the other side. He gasped and collapsed. He was still breathing. I pulled my claw out and thrust again. His breath stopped. His healing might be faster acting than mine, but mine is obviously stronger. We had to find it out the hard way.
I wiped my claw on his shirt. Turning to go, I saw a vehicle that I recognized. Cyclops’s bike. Iceman was looking slightly horrified at the controls.
“Mind telling me what the shit you’re doing here?” I called as I stepped over Sabertooth’s corpse.
“Coming to find you,” he answered. “You are seriously scary sometimes, by the way.”
“So I’ve been told. Are you here with permission?”
“No. Why?”
“Because Storm is going to be seriously furious at me when we get back. Why did you come?”
“When Nightcrawler rescued those two girls, he said that you were still intent on heading North. I figured that an extra pair of hands couldn’t hurt. So I borrowed the bike and came to find you.”
“Didn’t figure you for a forester,” I said.
“I’m not,” he assured me. “I programmed you into the tracking system. Without it, I’d’ve been totally lost. I don’t see how you and Ashley do it.”
“Just goes to show that you’re a child of the city. What’s this about a tracking device?”
“Child of the Suburbs, thank you very much. Storm lent it to me. It finds mutants. You coming or not?”
“Unless you want to program Storm into that fine device of yours, then I’d probably better take the lead.”
“I was just about to offer.”